Contents

Soon after Widmer-Schlumpf's election to the Federal Council, the SVP excluded both her and the SVP's other Federal Councillor, Samuel Schmid, from the party group. Schmid, like Widmer-Schlumpf, was a member of the SVP's moderate wing, and the SVP's dominant nationalist wing reckoned them both as unrepresentative of the SVP's populist campaigns. Some SVP members demanded that Widmer-Schlumpf and Schmid be thrown out of the party altogether. However, Swiss parties are legally federations of cantonal parties, and the SVP could not expel them directly. For them to have been expelled, the party's Graubünden and Bern sections, to which Widmer-Schlumpf and Schmid belonged respectively, would have had to expel them.

On 2 April 2008 the national SVP leadership called for Widmer-Schlumpf to immediately resign from both the Federal Council and the party. When Widmer-Schlumpf declined to do so, the national SVP demanded that the Graubünden branch expel her. The Graubünden section stood by Widmer-Schlumpf, and was expelled from the national SVP on June 1.

On 16 June 2008, the delegates' convention of the SVP's former Graubünden branch voted to change its name to BPS Graubünden (Conservative Party of Switzerland-Graubünden), becoming the first cantonal section of what would become the BDP.[7] A second cantonal section was founded in Bern on 21 June 2008 under the name BDP (Conservative Democratic Party);[7][8] the change from BPS to BDP was due to a name conflict with the extant minor party Bürgerpartei Schweiz (Citizen's Party of Switzerland), which has the same acronym BPS. As a result, the Graubünden branch also changed its name to BDP Graubünden.[9][10] Soon afterward, nearly all of the SVP's Bern section, including Schmid, defected to the new party.

Leon Schlumpf

Leon Schlumpf was a Swiss politician and a former member of the Swiss Federal Council (1979-1987).

Federal Council (Switzerland)

The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council that constitutes the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and of government of Switzerland.

Samuel Schmid

Samuel Schmid is a Swiss politician who was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2000 to 2008. He was the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports.

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party, also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre, is a national-conservative, right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Albert Rösti, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 65 members of the National Council and 5 of the Council of States.

Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland

The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 28 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 13 seats. It has one seat, that of Viola Amherd, on the Swiss Federal Council.

Magic formula

In Swiss politics, the magic formula is an arithmetic formula for dividing the seven executive seats of the Federal Council between the four ruling parties. The formula was first applied in 1959. It gave the Free Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic People's Party and the Social Democratic Party each two seats, while the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents received one seat.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is a Swiss politician and lawyer, and former member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2008 to 2015. She was the head of the Federal Department of Finance. She served as President of the Swiss Confederation for the year 2012.

2008 Swiss Federal Council election

On 10 December 2008, the Swiss Federal Assembly elected Ueli Maurer as successor to Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid. Schmid resigned on 12 November 2008 after a number of controversies, officially citing health and personal reasons. Maurer took office on 1 January 2009.

Ueli Maurer

Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer is a Swiss politician serving as President of the Swiss Confederation since 1 January 2019. A member of the Swiss People's Party, he has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2009. Formerly head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (2009–2015), Maurer has served as head of the Federal Department of Finance since 2016.

Simonetta Sommaruga

Simonetta Myriam Sommaruga is a Swiss politician serving as Vice President of the Federal Council since 2019, a body of which she has been a member since 2010. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she has served as head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications since 2019 and previously was head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police. She served as Vice President of the Federal Council for the year 2014; in 2015 Sommaruga assumed the role of President of the Swiss Confederation. Subsequently, she returned to the council's vice presidency in 2019.

2015 Swiss federal election

Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 18 October 2015 for the National Council and the first round of elections to the Council of States, with runoff elections to the Council of States being held in various cantons until 22 November.

Martin Landolt

Martin Landolt is a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss National Council for the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP). Since May 2012 he has been the President of the BDP.

Guy Parmelin

Guy Parmelin is a Swiss politician, member of the Swiss People's Party.

2015 Swiss Federal Council election

An election for all seven members of the Federal Council, the government of Switzerland, was held on 9 December 2015, following the federal election on 19 October 2015.

Hans Grunder

Hans Grunder is a Swiss politician in the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP).